Disaster
by CharmedPluto
Summary: Sort of a cross with but nothing like Fallout. Shadow has survived a meteor impact that wiped Australia and the entire south Pacific off of the face of Mobius. The resulting disasters that occured have plunged the world into a post-apocalyptic hell. And to top everything off, he's now a step father...Will he survive?
1. Prologue

Disaster: Prologue

The year is 2241, and calamity has struck. An asteroid destroyed it all, it wiped Australia and all of that area right off the map. The resulting earthquake from the impact brought society down on top of itself. There are no more governments, no united nations against anything. Nothing but silence. Or so I thought. My name is Shadow, and here I am stuck in my own living hell. How this happened while I was serving I'll never know. Someone went crazy and decided now would be a good time to fuck it all up. Take the lives that everyone on Mobius had taken for granted and completely fuck their days up. I've been looking for nearly a year and a half for a way to try to restore thing to their former glory. Instead I've only found bodies and meager supplies. No one braved the outside like I did. The day before the disaster, I was in my room, at my house with my girlfriend Amy. We'd just lay down to get to sleep when out of no where some guy comes on TV and says to evacuate. That night was loud. I heard screams and the building wouldn't stop shaking. When it wall over the power was out, and parts of the shelter had come down, killing almost everyone inside. I survived. I didn't see Amy. There were no signs of survivors. I don't know where they are now. I've been wandering ever since trying to find some kind of sign that I wasn't the only one in the entire world who lived. It'd snowed for the thousandth day in a row and by Chaos it was cold. I cinched up the leather jacket I'd taken from a clothing store and tried to stay warm

I stopped by a few places on my way to a small town outside of New York, and picked up a few things, food water and of course a weapon. Sure my body could be considered a weapon but it takes energy to do all of that. Oh and I picked up this journal too. I'd kept it ever since I fought the Black Arms, this way I never lose my memory again. Heh. Listen to this entry, its from January of 2238.

Lost my razor again, can't seem to ever keep track of the damned thing. Amy called me about something at around noon, at first when I saw the number on my caller ID I could've cared less but she's hurt. Not physically but emotionally. Sonic, once again, stood her up. She'd called Tails and Knuckles but Tails didn't know what to say and Knuckles wasn't home. I thought she'd call Cream since they're basically best friends but no she called me...

"Ha," I scoffed as I continued walking and shut the journal. I've been walking for a long time now, and so far I've gone through almost all my food and about half of my water. I sat down on a bench that somehow survived the nuclear holocaust. Looking around, I noticed how peacefully quiet it was, creep though, I found some sort of peace in death and destruction. Pulling the journal out and a pencil I started recording again. What did I write down? Only everything that happened to me today which was a whole lot of nothing. Still haven't found out my sign yet. My ear flicked, someone was walking this way. I hopped off of the bench and turned around, scared a little and curious too. Turning I saw a lone figure in the snowy haze. It was a hedgehog, and it was holding something. I took a wary step forward and when it came into view it was a very pretty hedgehog and in her arms was a gray bundle. She had some pretty bad wounds too by the look of it. When she saw me she dropped to a knee. I flash-stepped to where I was close enough to stop her from falling.

"Are you alright?" I asked.

"I'm done for..." she replied then handed me the bundle.

I took it from her...and she died in my arms right there. Looking at the bundle that was wrapped in cloths I sighed, tempted to set it down. Then it started moving. I nearly dropped it but only some second instinct allowed me to keep my grip on it. I unwrapped one layer of the cloths enough to reveal a face, it was a gray hedgehog with golden eyes that was looking up at me. I guarantee you at first look it was scared, but instead it said a simple word.

"Dada."

I cringed then got to my feet. The sun was setting and this baby wouldn't last very long out in the snow. I headed into the nearest building, a furniture store. Once inside I tried the lights, nothing. Heading into the back of the store I found the fused box and after messing with it I managed to get the lights on...of course some of them burst I'd guess from age. I set the baby in a crib that happened to have then lay in a bed of my own. Something told me that my world just got either a little bit better or a hell of a lot worse.


	2. Her name is Blaze

**Disaster Ch 1**

It's been fifteen years since that day. The day that girl gave me her baby then died in my arms had changed my plans forever. Not only was I supposed to be searching for my girlfriend and anyone else that was still alive, I had to raise the child. He's eighteen now. His name is Silver. The two of us had been wandering the wilderness that was all that remained of the US. So far all we'd managed to find were bodies, blood, and very few supplies.

"Hey dad." Silver called, "Check this out,"

I walked over to him, tightening my leather jacket as I did, I'd come to love and hate the snow since the disaster. Sure it provided a water source but it also could melt on you and give you frostbite. Silver was looking through a set of binoculars that we'd stolen from a hunting store last week. He handed me them.

"About two miles out, I'm seeing black smoke." He said pointing.

I looked though and sure enough near what used to be the Chrysler there was a column of black smoke rising into the gray-hazed sky only to blend in so it couldn't be seen.

"What are you thinking?" Silver asked me.

"Either a fire that never went out..."

"Which isn't very likely,"

"Or there are survivors over there."

I set them down and faced him.

"Are we going down there?"

"You bet we are, I'll do everything in my power to keep them alive."

"Always the hero, eh dad?"

I sighed and we started down the rubble hill we'd been on. Silver was warped in a steel gray leather jacket with a lime green scarf around his neck that was blowing in the wind as we made our way down. Finally we hit street level and from there started walking. To me, all this walking really whips a guy into shape, Silver had practically been born in this world so he was in better shape then I was. Though sometimes we went a night or two hungry I noticed the boy had a good build, almost like me way back when. I'm not in as good a shape as I used to be but I'm still strong. Silver wasn't like a certain echidna I knew and just packing bulky muscle, no he was lean, and boy could he get running, Silver was almost as fast a me, which yes, is saying something. My air skates died a long time ago so I'm not nearly as fast as I'd like to be but still faster then the average Mobian. So when we finally got to the source of the smoke there was in fact a fire. There were also people, both human and Mobian warming themselves by the fire, when they saw us the weapons immediately came out. I saw swords knives and the ever so rare pistol. Silver and I lifted our hands.

"What are you doing here?" a vulpine shouted.

"We saw the smoke and came to investigate," I replied.

"What are you? Raiders? Cause the last party to come our way fell under us."

"I can assure you we are not raiders,"

"Then what's with the kid in the mask?" a human asked pointing the pistol at Silver.

"This isn't a mask, is just me." Silver retorted pointing to the quills on his head.

I motioned him to calm down.

"I don't trust em Ed, I saw we skin em, and leave em for the Banshees."

I arced an eye ridge, "Banshees?"

"You've never heard of them?"

"No," Silver said, "What are they?"

"They're like a hive mind set. Picture a swarm of bees, then make them easily as tall as you are, give them bat-like wings that are the size of a car claws that are as long as my sword here, teeth sharp as daggers and a tail that they use like a bull whip. And that's just a drone."

"Are you making this shit up?" I asked, "Cause I don't buy into fairy tales,"

"The group you're looking at," The fox who I assumed was Ed motioned to his group, "We used to be bigger, then we encountered a hive. They were all over us."

"Where are they?"

"Fuck, man I don't know!"

I sighed, "Thanks for the tip, we have supplies if you could use some,"

"Do you have any medical vaccines?"

I opened the school back pack I had; yeah stole that from an elementary school, and started looking through it. We had four med vaccines. What these are is basically your entire first aid kit in a vial, it'll seal a wound and keep you from bleeding to death, reset dislocated bones and splint broken ones. All-in-all, these will keep you alive long enough until you can find a doctor...good luck with that.

"I can only spare two,"

"That's fine, we only need one,"

I gave him the vial.

"Aren't you Shadow?" a Mobian cat asked me, looked as if she were only about twelve.

I nodded.

"Then here, take this,"

She handed me a note, "We found this in your house I guess,"

"What's that dad?" Silver asked me as I unfolded the piece of paper and began reading it. It was a note from Amy to me. My eyes widened, she was in a camp just to the west of here.

"We've gotta go," I said grabbing Silver by the hand and taking off towards my old house.

"You're crazy man! That the way the Banshees are!" Ed shouted but I didn't listen.

He was out of ear shot in no time at all and Silver and I were easily fifteen block away from my house now.

"Time out!" Silver said yanking free, "Dad what the hell is going on?"

"I have a hope of finding my girlfriend again,"

"You mean my mom's alive?" Silver's eyes glowed.

In the passed fifteen years I hadn't the heart to tell him I wasn't really his father, nor that the first day after the disaster his mother had died in my arms. I shook my head and kept moving.

"Hold up dad!" he said still following me as I continued towards my old house.

"Look, the sooner we get to my old house the sooner we'll get answers." I told him without turning around.

The boy didn't say anymore. In about an hour we were at my house, the place was devastated, the walls had been ripped out and the roof had nearly collapsed in cutting us off from the top floor. I stepped inside through a hole in the wall and drew my only weapon, a simple knife I'd stolen from a pawn shop. I'd found a .44 magnum at that shop but it didn't have any bullets so I left it there.

"Hello?" I called, my voice echoing from off of the walls.

I heard Silver come inside by the sound of rubble crunching under feet.

I started looking around for any sign that she was still here or had been recently. I went through the cabinets and started looking around for anything that she may have messed with while looking for something. I didn't find anything that hadn't already been stolen. I opened the drawer and sighed.

"Ah hell..." I whispered, even the kitchen knives had been stolen out of the drawers.

"Hey dad," Silver called again, "You might want to look at this."

I looked up and in front of him was a trail of foot prints with a tail trail running down the middle. This thing whatever it was had only three toes, two in front and parted slightly and the third in the back, almost like a bird foot. I looked up following the tracks.

"What do you think?"

"I'm thinking we should follow it,"

"What if it's a Banshee?"

"You seriously bought that crap? C'mon, there's no such thing."

I started following the tracks, they were leading towards the west, where Amy was headed, I kept following them until we had to stop, it was getting dark already and cold too. I spotted a place where I thought we could sleep for the night, a cloths store. I first tried the door. Locked. Okay...

"Silver, do you want to kick the door in or should I?" I asked.

Silver lifted a foot and kicked the door in setting off the alarm. I rolled my eyes, at least the place had power unlike almost everything else in the city. When I walked inside it was notably warmer. I shut the door.

"What is that noise?"

"That's a security alarm, it tell you if someone's breaking in and calls the police. Of course that's what it used to do, now all they're good for is making a lot of noise."

"How do we shut it off?"

I went into the back of the store and hit a switch and the alarm died, "Like that."

"So should I get a fire going?"

I shook my head in denial, "This place has power by whatever miracle, so all we have to do is turn on the heater and that should keep us warm."

"Oh, so what do you want me to do?"

"Look around for anything we might be able to use,"

I went looking for something that I never thought I'd get to use ever again; a thermostat. When I found it I noted the temperature was at a toasty seventy-eight. I tapped it up two degrees to an even eighty. When it's minus eight outside, you have to compensate. For the first time in a long time I took off my jacket, revealing the black undershirt. I sat down on a bench. I finally was able to just take a load off and quickly whipped out my journal logging today's event when I felt something cold on the back of my head.

"Don't you dare think about calling for help..." a female voice warned, "Get up slowly."

I stood up.

"Hands where..."

"Yeah yeah yeah..." I lifted my hands.

"Something tells me this isn't your first time at gun point is it?"

"Nope,"

"There were two of you, where did you send the white kid?"

"Out to check for other survivors and supplies."

"Hey dad!" Silver called, his voice full of triumph, "I found food and water! There more medical vaccines too, I've got at least three or..."-he came in and saw what was going on.

"Yeah Silv, those are her's," I flicked a thumb over my shoulder pointing at the female whom had me at gun point.

"I knew someone was here when the alarm tripped, what are you doing here?" she asked.

"We're just looking for a place to stay the night."

"Are you raiders?"

"That's the second time we've been asked that today," I told her, "No we aren't. If you put the gun down I'll explain."

Silence and Silver looked a little scared, this was the longest two minutes ever and finally she lowered the gun. I turned and faced her, she was a pinkish purple furred feline, she couldn't have been older then seventeen, the hair on her head was tied up in a sort of spike/ponytail. She looked very lithe, kinda like a feminine feline version of Silver. But her eyes were what really stood out, they were bronze-brown with what could've been hell-fire in them. For a girl of her stature in a world where just about everyone is either dead or dying, she was the hottest thing I'd seen in a long time. But I swore to myself that Amy would be my only.

"We've been together," I padded Silver on the shoulder, "Since he was three, I practically raised him."

"So?"

"So tonight we need a place to stay, just for the night, we're outta here tomorrow morning,"

She looked at me then at Silver, "You both could use a shave,"

I stroked my muzzle feeling the fuzz that was now a full beard. I sighed.

"Are we welcome to stay the night then?" Silver blurted out. I glared at him out of the corner of my eyes.

She shrugged and holstered her gun, "Sure, as long as you don't make too much noise at night...I'm a light sleeper."

I nodded, "Silver get ready to get some sleep, I see what's on the menu tonight,"

I started rummaging through my bag while Silver went into the restroom.

"So what are you, like, his dad?" the cat asked

I looked up at her, "Sort of,"

"Who are you then?"

"I'm Shadow the Hedgehog."

"Nice to meet you Mister Shadow,"

I shook my head, "Please no 'Mister' it's just Shadow,"

She chuckled a bit, "I'm Blaze."

I arced an eye ridge, "What's that? A stage name?"

"NO!" She said, clearly not want that thing to be brought into the equation.

"That's your birth name?"

She nodded.

"Hmm, you must've had interesting parents,"

"You're telling me, I hardly knew them. They died when I was six."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

She shrugged again, "I don't let it stop me."

"You and me both, my father tried to enslave the planet before all this shit happened, I killed him. My mom...well I didn't really have a genetic mother."

"You're like a test-tube baby?"

"Eh...kinda. My title is the Ultimate Life-form. If you've ever heard of Project SHADOW; that's me. I'm that Shadow."

"Ah..."-she clearly hadn't a clue what I was talking about.

Silver came out of the restroom a moment later. I pulled out an MRE and tossed it to him, "Catch."

He did and looked at it for a half second, "Don't eat the cheese?"

"You know it. That shit will back you up for a week at the least."

Blaze looked at it then at me, "Where on Mobius did you find MREs?"

"I ordered them in bulk a long time ago, because my girlfriend and I like to go out camping and since those supply a full meal, it's cheaper then buying all the stuff to cook out stuff. Of course we didn't always bring them out, sometime we did though."

"So you stalked up?" Blaze said.

I nodded.

"What's the deal with the cheese that he's talking about?"

"Oh my Chaos," Silver said, "Don't ask..."

"He made the mistake of eating the cheese one time and he's stayed away from it ever since."

"What'd it do?"

"Trust me...you don't want to know."

I opened my MRE and started to cook it, while that was going I opened the water bottle and took a sip.

"What I wouldn't give for a beer right about now." I commented, "Of course I'd have to brew it first."

"Beer?" Silver said.

"It's a very good drink from pre-disaster, but you had to be at least twenty-one to drink it."

"How old are you Shadow?" Blaze asked, "There's no way your over twenty."

"I'm thirty-six." I said.

"No..."

I nodded, "It's true, I took care of Silver here since he was three and now he's eighteen. That's fifteen years, I was twenty-one when I started taking care of him, right when all the shit hit the fan."

"I was a good kid right?" Silver asked his mouth was stuffed with spaghetti.

I nodded, "The coolest."

"So what's your story..." Silver was motioning for a name.

"Blaze." she told him, "Um...my story is simple, born in the shit raised in the shit, living, still, in the shit."

Silver shrugged, "I like her already,"

We laughed.

I picked up my journal and started eating my MRE, savoring the flavor for once while I recorded everything that happened after Blaze held me at gun point.

"So what's your plan Blaze?" Silver asked.

"You're looking at it. I've been here for three months now, I'm like you two, just a drifter trying to survive."

Silver nodded.

"And what about you two?"

"I'm following a lead I got from this note." I told Blaze showing her the note.

Silver and her both looked at it, "What do all these symbols mean?"

"Yeah, how does this relate to your girlfriend?" Silver asked

I sighed, "Right, you two never did go to school did you?"

Both shook their heads.

"So neither of you can read..."

I started try to explain how to read to them...

That took the better part of the night but by the time I'd finished Silver and Blaze could read on a very minor level, I told them I'd continue tomorrow and that I'd also take first watch. Blaze went back to the break room and Silver stayed out here falling asleep on a bed he'd fashioned out of T-shirts. I used Chaos Control for the first time in a long time and teleported onto the roof after slipping my jacket back on and putting on a beanie. Looking around I didn't see anything, only heard the sound of the wind. Looking up you'd think the stars would be out because pretty much all the power is gone, but nope...there were too many clouds for me to even catch a glimpse of one. I couldn't even see the moon anymore either. While I was up there I did hear something else, like a growling noise, I took a look over the edge and saw something crouched near a crashed car.

"Hey..." I called.

It turned looking up at me and yelled before jumping from street level up onto the roof I fell over and had it on top of me in seconds. It had claws, long scything claws that it tried to gut me with though it only nicked my side. I kicked it off of me drew the knife I had and squared off with it.

"Come at me again you son of a bitch!" I challenged.

It yelled and rushed me. I stepped to the side and jammed the knife in its head. Blood splattered onto my face as I twisted and pulled. The thing collapsed and I made sure it was dead now by stabbing it where the Medulla normally would have been. It twitched and lay still. I withdrew the knife as the door up here opened up. Blaze was standing there looking at me, her eyes glowing.

"What the hell just happened?" she asked.

"This thing," I nodded towards the dead creature while wiping the blood off of my knife, "It tried to attack me, so I killed it."

Blaze walked up to it, "A Prowler."

"Huh?"

"Get inside and get ready for a fight Shadow...this was just the first of many."


	3. Sonic?

Disaster Ch 2

When we got back inside, Blaze led me to the break room, opened up a duffel bag, and handed me something that I hadn't seen since pre-disaster.

"An M416?" I commented, "And it has..."-I started inspecting the weapon, "A foregrip, a holographic site, and a suppressor."

I ejected the magazine, it was fully loaded with a round already in the chamber.

"Where did you get this?" I asked.

"I'll explain once we deal with the rest of those prowlers."

"What do you mean the rest of them? There was only the one."

Blaze rolled up the sleeve on her wind breaker, revealing a nasty scar, "That's what I though last month, I nearly was killed by a whole pack of them. They always and I mean _always _hunt in groups."

"Hunt...you mean we're..."

I heard the door open and Silver came in rubbing his left eye, "What's up with all the racket.

"No time to explain, hold this," Blaze shoved an AK74M into Silver's arms.

"Ah!" Silver shouted surprised almost losing the weapon, but he held onto it.

Blaze then started loading up rounds when she saw the two of us just standing there, "Stop staring and start loading up magazines! That AK takes 7.62 rounds and the M416 takes 5.56 rounds. 7.62s are in that case,"-She point to a case on the table, "and the 5.56 are in that one,"-she pointed to the case she was getting rounds from.

"How many mags do you have?" I asked.

"For the M416 I have like ten, for the AK, I've got six. Now start loading rounds damn it."

The two of us got to work loading our ammo. When I finished loading up I put the safety on my weapon.

"Alright, Shadow, you get back on the roof. Use that rifle on semi-auto, and pick them off as they come, there shouldn't be that many but there's still a lot of them. Silver you stay with me," Blaze said.

I nodded started back up the step and finally posted up on the roof looking towards where that thing attacked me from. Then came the waiting, I saw a bunch of movement below me and finally I spotted one. I slowly squeezed the trigger. The thing's head exploded into a mist of blood and it dropped instantly. I kept panning until I heard something behind me. I turned around to face a pair of jaws that were drooling green slime. Looking up I saw a shadowed figure easily eight feet tall. I lifted it's arm and I ended up dodge-rolling to the right and sliding underneath it. I leveled my rifle but I didn't know it had wings...and it blasted me onto my back just by flapping them. It was now high in the air, I didn't bother trying to get up instead I steadied my rifle and flipped it to full auto and started shooting up at it. A scream of pain confirmed that I'd hit it but it still landed on me as if completely unaware that it had just been shot. It clawed at me chest and slashed right through my jacket but didn't him skin thankfully. I pulled the trigger again and blood sprayed everywhere. I kept shooting until it finally registered all of the damage it had just taken and died. Needless to say it was slashing the whole time it was getting shot and I had slash wounds on my chest and arms though none were very bad. I kicked the body off of me and reposted, my wounds stinging from the cold. I kept watching and picked off three more of the prowlers before having to reload. I stored the empty magazine and slapped in a fresh one. I then noticed that dawn was approaching, and the screams of the prowlers were started to die away. I lowered my weapon and headed back inside. When I got there Silver was standing over Blaze, she'd been hit hard and was bleeding really badly. I ran into the back of the shop and grabbed a health vaccine. Blaze had a laceration across her stomach, I could practically see her innards. The fact that she was still alive was a miracle in itself. I put the needle on the end of the vaccine.

"What happened?" I asked.

"One got through," Silver replied pointing to a dead corpse in the corner of the room.

Setting the vaccine against the wound I cringed at the smell of blood but I sighed.

"This is going to hurt, but you'll thank me later." I told her. She only gargled on blood.

I stuck it into the wound and pushed it in. The wound started to fizzle and the flesh repair itself. Blaze screamed in agony. Silver was holding her hand the whole time too. When the wound was sealed I told Silver to go get some of the shirts and cloths, anything that I could use as make shift bandages. He brought back plenty of stuff. Using five shirts and a pair of female underwear I was able to tie the bandages together, it wasn't pretty but it worked. Blaze had passed out from the pain.

"Will she be okay dad?" Silver asked me.

I wasn't sure what to say, the wound looked really bad before I used the health vaccine, on a normal person the shock alone should've killed her, but she held on, almost as if she were...

I stood up checking my senses, I sensed my own power first, the largest in the room, then I sensed Silver, his levels were maintained and finally Blaze's power. It was hot, like under the sun hot. She was a pyro! I realized. Silver was psychokinetic I knew, though he didn't use his powers enough to know how to control them. Now how often Blaze used her power was unknown to me but that would explain why the shock from the wound hadn't killed her instantly.

"I'm staying up, you go back to sleep I'll let you know if Blaze wakes up." I said to Silver, "Turn her on her side so she doesn't choke on her own blood."

He did so, blood drizzled out of Blaze's mouth like maple syrup. I kept watch until about ten o clock the next morning when Silver came out of the back room.

"Is she up?" he asked instantly.

"You're really scared for Blaze aren't you?"

"She's the only company we've had since three month ago, and all those guys did was steal all of our stuff."

"Yeah, remind me that if I see a guy with a bronze red Mohawk to scatter his entrails from here to Manhattan."

"Can do,"

"But you are right," I said then sighed, "She a tough bitch, Silver, she'll pull through."

Silver stretched, "So breakfast?"

"Um..." I looked the through the back pack, "I've got...General Tso chicken or...beef stew which do you want?"

"You know I can't handle spicy stuff, beef stew it is."

I tossed him the MRE.

"Shouldn't we save something for Blaze, when she wakes up?"

"Go into the back and see what she's got."

Silver set his MRE down and went into the back leaving me to myself. I logged this event into the journal. By the time I was finished I sensed Blaze's power increasing, which probably meant I should...

She shot up and a ball of fire nearly cooked me and my MRE. It shot passed me thank Chaos and splashed harmlessly against the wall. Blaze grimaced.

"What happened?" she asked.

"Good morning sleeping beauty," I said sarcastically, "Thanks for not cooking me!"

She set a hand on her forehead, "What happened?" She said again.

"You got a nasty scratch," I told her, "So I used a med vaccine and some T-shirts to patch you up."

"I feel like my stomach was just torn out of me,"

"It almost was."

"Where's Silver?"

"In the back,"

"Is he okay?"

I heard the door open then a voice, "Which do you think she'll like more? Ham and Swiss or Beef and noodles?"

"At least you have good tastes Silver," Blaze said.

He smiled set both down and sat next to her, "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, your dad sure knows how to fix a girl up." she told him.

"Oh c'mon," I told her, "I was only improvising."

Silver quickly blushed I noticed though I don't think Blaze did, "So are you hungry?"

"Not really, I think I'll wait until my wounds stop stinging before I eat."

"Oh..."

I left those two alone and headed outside inspecting the bodies of the things we killed last night. I didn't find much; pre-disaster money, some empty vials, a pack of cigarettes which I promptly tossed aside and shot with a Chaos Spear burning every last one of them. On one I did find something useful, it had a forty-five pistol with a full magazine and two extras also. I took those back to the store and walked in on Silver and Blaze hugging. I cleared my throat and they immediately broke apart, both blushing like mad.

"Okay you love birds this place isn't exactly a defensible position anymore." I told them, "We should get going."

"But I can barely walk," Blaze said, "Unless one of you are going to carry me I'm staying here."

"She's right dad, we can't afford to move her right now, we'll just have to wait until she's ready to move again." Silver added.

Out voted...fuck my life...

"Fine, I'll go out and recon the area around the north about three blocks or so from here. Silver why don't you hit everything to the south of here, you find anything interesting let me know got it?"

Silver nodded.

"And you expect me to just sit here alone?" Blaze said.

"We'll be right back Blaze don't worry," Silver assured her. I scoffed easily being able to tell that those two were going to become good friends. I made a mental note of that and was going to put that into the journal once I got time. Heading back out I stopped and heading back inside the clothing shop. Blaze was on her feet and sitting in the chair behind the counter. I smiled time to have a little imporv fun.

"Excuse me miss," I said starting to act as if the world hadn't ended, "But I'm looking for a new jacket, could you point me in the right direction?"

Blaze smiled, "Why yes I could, right this way sir."

She led me to the men's outer wear part of the shop and I quickly found a black and red leather jacket. Throwing it on I looked at Blaze.

"Thank you for the help miss, here's a little something for you, go get yourself something nice,"-I pretended to hand her pre-disaster money and she laughed.

"That was kinda fun," she said, "I haven't done improv in a long time. Just wish it would've lasted a bit longer."

"Did you used to do that?"

"Yeah, I met a guy who was an actor from pre-disaster."

"What happened to him?"

She didn't answer.

"Oh..." I replied, "I'm sorry."

"Don't be he saved my life, kinda like you did earlier."

I didn't say anything for a second then stood up, "Well I better get back on recon, don't push yourself too hard Blaze, we don't want to have that wound reopen again."

She nodded and I headed back outside.

Looking around I made sure I still had the rifle Blaze gave me. Leveling it I charged ahead. The northern part of the area didn't yield much, I found some bottled waters in a house, a thing of playing cards and some other board games in a shop that looked as if it had just been raided, and in the last place I found another body. I looked it over, it was a blue hedgehog, with his lack of proper clothing I could tell he must've died last night. We I went to roll him over and check his for supplies though, he got up, and decked me across the face.

"Christ!" I cursed holding my nose, "I thought you were dead."

"Me dead?" he replied in a very familiar voice, "Do I sound dead to you?"

Looking up I recognized his face, "Sonic?"

"How the fuck do you know my name?"

"You don't recognize me do you?"

He shook his head.

"It's me, Shadow. Remember...pre-disaster...I was your rival?"

"No...I can't say I...," Sonic slunk down holding his head he growled then look at the hand, "I'm bleeding."

I set my rifle down and looked him over, "Yeah, you got nicked pretty badly."

"You a doctor or something?"

I shook my head, "I do however know when someone's had a concussion, come with me,"

He followed me outside and I looked at his eyes, then I sighed, his pupils were unevenly dilated, "Yep...you have a concussion, give yourself the rest of the day and your memory will return."

"Who are you?"

I shook my head, "There's no time for that, come with me,"

I led him back to the shop. When we got there I noticed that Silver was already back and Blaze was looking through the supplies we had and taking inventory.

"So combine Silver what do we have?" I heard Blaze ask.

"Six medical vaccines, about a weeks worth of MREs four bottles of water, um...about sixty 5.56 rounds less then forty 7.62s a handful of .357s and ten of the .50 magnum rounds. Weapon wise we have the AKM, that .357 magnum revolver, the M416 that Dad has and this out of ammo P.O.S. nine millimeter." Silver said

"Hey guys." I said bringing Sonic in.

"Yo." Silver said.

"How'd the search go?"

"Not too well. I managed an MRE but that was it."

"Did you find anything?" Blaze asked immediately after

"Three bottles of water and a guy with a concussion," I told her.

Blaze gave me a look then saw Sonic, "What beat him over the head? A baseball bat?"

"He doesn't know."

"Does he have a name?"

"This is Sonic, I remember him from pre-disaster, he can be a real asshole sometimes."

"HEY!" Sonic shouted clearly taking offense then he blinked twice and added, "Did I get hit in the head?"

I sighed, "Just ignore what he says, he's got a concussion. His memory's going to be skipping around like a bad MP3 file for a little while."

"So do we get moving?" Blaze said

"You feeling well enough to walk?"

The feline nodded.

"Then let's go, we're heading west."

"Towards the Banshee hives are you insane!?"

I growled, "Those crawler things we fought last night, are those Banshees?"

"Sort of, they're just prowlers, scouts, the workers, they look for food to bring back to the colony."

"And that huge thing that gave me those nasty scratches, was that like a drone?"

She nodded.

"And I assume there's also a queen that runs this whole operation?"

"Yes, and I've seen her and her little prince. The bitch is huge!"

"I've fought big before, how huge?"

"Think of the biggest meanest strongest scariest monster you've ever seen."

"An EggColussus?"

"Bigger,"

"Um...my older brother Biolizard?"

"Bigger..."

"Ooh! Um...Doom's Incarnation!"

"C'mon hedgehog think!"

"Okay there's no way in hell it's bigger then that. I killed that motherfucker, and let me tell you something..."

"Would you two shut up?" Silver butted in, "Let's just note it as a threat and deal with it as we go, okay?"

I looked at Blaze and she at me then we both nodded.

"Dad lead the way, it's your girlfriend we're going after." Silver said as he and Blaze fell in behind me.

"You make her sound like a terrible person."

"Well I don't know her, but there's always the possibility."

I motioned Sonic to follow and the three of us got moving.


	4. This is a giant bee hive

**Disaster Ch 3**

So while we were heading west Blaze was trying to get my attention while Sonic was asking questions about where he was and why we were walking all armed with weapons and such.

"Shadow wait," Blaze finally grabbed my hand and spun me to face here, "Where are you trying to get to? Hell?"

"To a refugee camp." I told her showing her the note Amy left me.

"Do you have any idea what's out there!"

"No but whatever is out there we're ready for it."

"Oh no...nononononono. Nooo. We are not ready for what's out there."

"Then we'll improvise."

Blaze huffed an annoyed breath, "Do you _want_ to know what's out there?"

I stopped motioning to the others to do the same, "Why don't you tell us all so we're all ready,"

"Ready for what?" Sonic said, "What's going on?"

I looked at him checking his pupils they were finally the same size again.

"Okay it shouldn't be long before your memory comes back Sonic,"

"You...wait..." Sonic dropped to a knee growling in pain.

"Sonic? You okay?" Silver asked.

He stopped then looked up at us, "Shadow? What are you doing here? Where are we?"

"You sure you'll remember this time?"

He nodded, "I remember running last night and something attacked me. It threw me into a building and knocked me out. I don't remember waking up but I do remember being in the store with you three."

"Good, Blaze is about to tell us what stands between us and a refugee camp to the west of here."

All eyes were on her.

"Um..." she was clearly nervous, then she took a breath, "Okay, you remember those prowlers from last night right?"

Silver and I nodded while Sonic started scratching his head.

"I told you that Banshees have a hive mind set, There's the queen, who spawns the young and is the heart of the hive, and the warlord, who directs the underling. The underlings consist of two species, prowlers who are the hunters and drones that are their protectors."

"And this is relevant how?" I asked.

"Between us and that camp...there's an entire network of hives all over the place. The fuckers have been busy these passed ten years."

"So what?" Sonic said.

"Sonic," I said, "You remember the World Trade Center right?"

"Yeah,"

"It took the Congress one year to build that after the terrorists knocked it down,"

"And..."

"If a group regular humans and Mobians can erect a 300 floor building in one year. Imagine what a group of mutated humans and Mobians can build in ten years."

Sonic started thinking by the look of it and and shook his head, "This isn't going to be as easy as I thought it would be."

"Knowing our shitty luck it never is."

That said I kept walking.

"Dad are you sure we can cut through this hive network?"

"Yes I'm sure,"

"I say that your crazy!" Blaze spat, "You go into those catacombs you are royally fucked!"

"You've been in them haven't you?"

All conversation ceased. The wind was blowing now, kicking up the snow off of the group as the clouds started to shift. Fresh snow had fallen the night before and it was reflecting sunlight back up at us, if we weren't wearing all these clothes I guarantee we'd have been sun-burned. Blaze looked at the ground.

"Yeah...I know now that you have," I told her, "That actor guy that you said saved your life, he's the reason you made it through isn't he?"

She nodded, "We were leaving that camp,"

I cocked my head to the side, "Why?"

"The camp was being run by a local gang called the Namboo. They are the ones that distribute the supplies at the camp accordingly. They keep most of it while everyone else gets almost shit for everything."

"So you left?"

She nodded, "The two of us figured we'd be better off without the Namboo stealing our food."

"Cruel leaders running a poor as hell camp with no regards to what happens to the people they are with..." I shook my head, "Okay now I'm _definitely _going through the catacombs."

"Shadow you'll just get us all killed!" Blaze said.

"No, I won't let any of you die. Not while I can still do something about it." I motioned them forward, "Let's go, where's the entrance to the hive."

Blaze sighed, "I guess there's no way to change your mind, follow me,"

She sped off at an extremely high pace, Silver Sonic and I followed. In a few short minutes we were near the collapsed ruins of the Interstate ramp. Looking around the shops had all been raided, I could tell by the lack of doors in the door frames and the cash registers opened and all the pre-disaster money, which was now worthless, stolen. The entrance took us into the subways, I could hear a real low rumbling beneath inside the tunnels. If anything those were Banshees. The stair well was covered in a slimy green paste that made the stairs slick and hard to walk on in the shoes I'd found, which were a size too small but I managed to get them to fit.

"This is the tunnel I came out of." Blaze said, "I had Banshees chase me as far as six blocks before they backed off. Through the passed months I've studied them and as you probably already figured out they hunt at night."

I nodded, "Then let's get through these tunnels before then."

We started underground. Silver almost slipped on the ooze but caught himself and there were no further problems.

"I can't see a thing down here," Sonic said.

"Blaze do you have a light?"

Her shadow lifted a hand and a ball of fire appeared in it lighting up the area around us. I looked around and found a piece of metal that was broken off of a wall stud. Grabbing it I tore off a piece of my jeans and wrapped it around the metal in a tight bundle.

"If I may?" I asked point it at Blaze.

She lit the end and now we had a torch.

"There now you won't have to be our torch," I said.

She nodded and we started walking. Two hours passed inside these tunnels and still nothing to really note except that the rumbling was getting louder.

"I don't like this," Sonic said.

I grunted agreeing, but on we went. I sniffed the air and nearly gagged, "What the hell is that smell?"

"I don't want to find..." Sonic started but never finished

_SPLAT!_ I looked at Sonic and he lifted his foot, there was a yellowish brown substance that was now lacing his shoe.

"Aw what the fuck!" he cursed.

"Just deal with it, we can clean your shoes off after we get outta here." I told him. And on we went still. The walls and floor were not only covered in what I assumed was shit (literally) but also in that same substance that was covering the steps, looking around with the torch I could see what looked essentially like giant honeycombs.

"I wonder if they make honey..." Sonic commented.

"I would eat it unless I absolutely had to." Blaze said

"Hey do you guys hear something?" Silver said.

I had noted the bass level down here was like the inside of a car blasting dub-step but aside from that I hadn't heard anything. Then came a growling noise, followed by a roar and a flapping of wings.

"What the hell was that?" I asked.

I heard a rumbling noise like a herd of stampeding bulls. I looked to the left and motioned the guys to get into this little honey comb that was just big enough for us all to fit inside of. I extinguished the torch and felt what may as well have been a magnitude 7 earthquake. We sat huddled there for what couldn't have been more than a few minutes. When it was over I asked Blaze to turn the lights on and she lit another ball of fire and reignited my torch. I heard then a kind of squeal before Blaze turned around and knocked us all out of the comb.

"What the hell Blaze?" Sonic cursed sitting up rubbing his head.

She started stammering pointing into the honeycomb we'd just been thrown out of. I approached and stuck the torch inside.

"By Chaos..." I whispered. Inside of that thing was a larva. It looked like a cross between a human and a prowler, so it didn't exactly look as if it we going anywhere, "It just a larva."

"Just a larva? You're fucking insane Shadow!" Blaze shouted, "That's the thing that turns into the prowlers that nearly killed us last night."

"Then watch your step and hold your temper," I replied, "If you burn up a single one of them the whole hive will know we're here."

I started to go deeper into the hive. Using the torch to light my way, Silver and Sonic followed behind and Blaze brought up the rear. As we got deeper the smell of this place only got worse. I plugged my nose and ignored it as best I could. Note to self, make sure to log this into the journal, if someone finds it if I die, that will tell and interesting story. When we got really deep inside something dripped from the ceiling and extinguished my torch.

"If we don't get out of here soon I'll run out of pants..." I muttered tearing off more of my pants then wrapping it around the pole and having Blaze ignite it. It was back to walking and checking our backs. This little journey of our was like a tour of an alien bee hive, there were funny noises every so often, I could've swore there was something following me and of course it smelt horrible. Sonic was the first one to complain about the smell.

"Gods there's this new product called air freshener, I wonder if these things have heard of it." he said plugging his nose.

"Someone call the exterminator..." I commented.

"Yeah I think they're overdue for a little inspection,"

I nodded now just walking still.

"I think we're almost outside, I see light up ahead." Silver said.

There was now that I looked, it was white, and I thanked Chaos that it was there, then something stepped in front of me. Yeah, something. It looked down, at me with a huge toothy smile. Looking up this thing was easily eight foot tall, more ripped than Arnold Schwarzenegger, had scything claws as big as I was and bat-like wings that were folded neatly over it's back.

"Oh..." Silver said.

"Aw man...and just when I thought things were looking up," Sonic commented as the thing roared at us.

"RUN!" I shouted and ducked as it slashed at us and cut my torch in half. I threw the piece of metal to the ground and took off running towards the little white blip of light. Checking over my shoulder Blaze Sonic and Silver were right behind me. Unfortunately that thing was right behind us. Turning my eyes forward I kept running and met what this one guy I saw on a show I used to watch on TV would call a ghost hole...a really deep ghost hole. I fell easily ten feet and hit the ground hard. Looking up I saw the hole I'd fallen through. Sonic also fell down the shaft and rolled to his feet. Silver and Blaze must've made it outside because they didn't fall after us.

"We have to get outta here," Sonic said.

"For once I agree," I replied then we started walking. I started following the tracks which were lit by some miracle, I guess that the hive only covered the first floor of this subway, that being the ticket counter, security, and the halls to the terminals. We were on the tracks so it had to let out somewhere. After about an hour stuck down here and walking along these tracks Sonic slowed down.

"Okay, we've been walking for hours, where the hell is our exit!" he shouted dropping on his knees.

"Pick yourself up hedgehog," I snapped, "You're no good to us dead."

"What's the point...we're gonna die down here and you know it!"

"Okay what the hell, Sonic, I've known you to be a lot of things but a quitter isn't one of them. Now get to your feet and let's get out of here,"

"What do you know about me Shadow, you avoided me almost every chance you got!"

"That was the old me, I was lost."

I knelt down next to him, "Did something happen before the shit hit the fan or as of recently?"

Sonic shook his head, but I could tell he was lying.

"Something did happen, your shaking like a leaf."

The blue blur looked down at the floor with a look of defeat on his face, "Everything went bad about two weeks ago."

"Okay, do you want to talk about it?"

He nodded, "It was me Tails Cream Knuckles Rouge and Sally. We were at the old Empire State building and some raiders attacked us. They killed Cream and Tails, and forced the rest of us to leave. I..."-I saw a tear fall from his eyes as he continued, "My little brother Shadow...he's gone. Cream too, she was one of my closest friends. About three days went by before we lost Knuckles to a group of those prowler things. Rouge had her wings clipped by a bigger one. Sally and I tried our best to keep her alive but after four days of replacing bandages we couldn't stop the bleeding and she finally bled to death."

"When you say 'clipped' do you mean they got scratched up really badly or..."

"That thing ripped 'em right off of her back."

I hissed, betting that must've been something he'd rather not have seen, "Continue?"

He nodded, "So it's me and Sally left and we managed another four days on our own before those Namboo sons of bitches showed up, they managed to sneak up on us and knocked me out. When I woke up, I'm looking at you and wondering where the hell Sally went."

I sighed then set a hand on his shoulder, "Sonic,"

He looked up at me, his eyes were red from tears.

"In life your going to encounter loss, no one can tell you when or who its going to happen to, but you can be damned sure that the lost won't forget you. I guarantee you that they don't want the same thing to happen to you. I'll be damned if I let anyone else die on my watch,"

"So fucking what!"

"Sonic listen to me, we did not come this far to die now, we are getting out of here and I'm going to give you that chance for pay back against the Namboo, but we have to get out of here first. Do you want Sally back?"

He nodded.

"Well I bet you they wouldn't let a pretty girl like Sally die. Now get to your feet because I'm not carrying your ass outta here."

Sonic got to his feet, "I'm going to kill that jackass with the Mohawk."

I stopped and looked at him, "Was it a bronze-red color?"

He nodded.

"Silver and I ran into him, he stole our supplies one time, we nearly starved to death until Silver and I broke into a convenient store."

"So do you want to kill him or can I?"

I shrugged, "That depends, do you want the blood of revenge on your hands?"

We started walking

"The blood of revenge?"

"It's the thing that nearly got me executed for high treason, but I got out of it because a certain bat didn't want to see me dead, she wanted me as a play thing first. I didn't fall for it though,"

"You mean Rouge?"

I nodded, "She's the only reason I'm alive right now, and probably the only reason you are too, we should be so greatful. And she still tried to screw me over."

"How so?"

"She asked me out, I said yes, then she started cheating on me. I met the other guy that she was seeing. He was on the verge of punching me, but I told him plain and simple, 'look buddy, we're the victims here' and he gave me that look of a sudden epiphany and so we both basically started avoiding her. He gave me his number and we ended up becoming good friends."

"What was the guy's name?"

"Zane,"

"Sounds Asian..."

"Maybe, I don't honestly care. The important thing was that we both got out of there Scott free."

Sonic nodded, "You were always a mystery Shadow you know that?"

I shrugged, "It's because people don't try to get to know me, they see this,"-I motioned to my current state, black quills with scarlet stripes, my black and red leather jacket and the jeans that now probably looked two sizes to small, "And think 'ew a freak of nature' and avoid me. So I return that feeling of avoidance."

"So did Zane survive this disaster?"

I shook my head, "I don't know if he did or not. The two of us met up after about three week from zero hour, but after that we got separated because of a group of murderers, they came in and tried killing me and him while Silver was still young, I got away, but I don't think he did."

"You're taking loss really well compared to me..."

I looked at him, "I've had this happen before, first Maria, then Amy at zero hour, then Zane at the three week mark, now Blaze and Silver, who I raised in this shit hole of a world."

"Whoa whoa whoa...You _raise _one of them?"

I nodded, "Yeah, I raised Silver from when he was three. What of it?"

"Did you and Amy...?"

I snorted, "No! She wanted to wait til marriage before that kind of thing."

"Ah..."

I looked up a head as the tracks rounded a corner. When it finally straightened out I saw the terminal. I picked up the pace, "I see the terminal, c'mon hedgehog we're almost outta here."

Sonic followed me, we got off of the tracks and headed up the stairs.

Ever come out of a dark room and into the light? If you're a gamer you probably have and you're like a black cat, hissing and trying to block the evil light. Well that was Sonic and I when we got out, it was noon now.

"No...that can't be right," I said.

"What?" Sonic asked.

"We went into the tunnels when the sun was over there."-I pointed to the west, "Explain to me how the sun got from there to there,"-I pointed the the celestial body in question.

"Looks like we spent the night in the tunnels,"

I started to get worried, "Silver!"

There wasn't an answer.

"Silver! Blaze!" I called, "You guys out here?"

Still nothing.

Sonic looked around, "C'mon, if anything I'm sure they're fine."

I sighed not wanting to accept that the only company I've had for fifteen years just vanished because I happened upon a hole to a lower level. I heard a roaring noise off to the south of us.

"I think I know where they are!" Sonic said pointing.

I face the way he was looking and what I saw I almost couldn't comprehend. There was a giant Banshee, it was easily the size of a battleship and was swiping at something at its feet. I saw fire being shot at it and it was roaring still. I knew who was doing that.

"Blaze and Silver are both over there, we have to go help them!" I shouted motioning Sonic to follow.

"Can't you just teleport us there?"

"If I was properly nourished yes, but I've been living off of MREs for fifteen years, I'm lucky if I can teleport from here to that build that looks still a mile from them."

"Some Ultimate Life-form you turned out to be."

"We can argue who better when we save Silver and Blaze now hurry the fuck up!"

We continued towards the giant Banshee.


	5. Off with her head!

**Disaster Ch 4**

Looking up at it I only had one thought, and that was how we were supposed to kill that thing. I started to head around behind it to try to find a weak spot when it's foot landed barely an inch from me. I bet you I had bug eyes for a second.

"How the hell...?" I muttered as the foot lifted to take another step. I looked to the left and heard a loud kind of grinding noise. It just had to have a tail. The limb reared up and slashed side ways clipping me in the side of the head. I was tossed from where I was standing into a building through the glass and into a chair. It was a furniture outlet by the look of it. I sat there for a moment covered in glass and breathless.

"Ow," I stated bluntly then jumped to my feet. I ran back outside to see Blaze spamming flames at it, while Sonic was running in circles creating small tornadoes that were just making it angry. I didn't see Silver. I reared a hand back and focused on my own inner power. It had been too long since I'd used a Chaos Spear but it was like riding a bike, you never forget how to use it. The energy blast formed on my hand, still just as hot as I remember it to be, I threw it hitting the giant in the side of the head. It's head snapped to the side from the impact and it turned to face me. It roared and lifted a foot to smash me. I started sprinting as it brought it down and nearly crushed me, the impact however knocked me off of my feet. It then leaned down to slash at me. I rolled out of the way of getting chopped to pieces but I did get hit hard enough to where I was thrown across the street. Silver flew up to it and started throwing balls of ESP at it. That did little more then piss it off. He did however save me from being killed. The boy dropped out of the sky as the behemoth slashed at him and missed completely. I jumped to my feet hissing from the large wound along my side. Sonic Blaze and Silver regrouped with me.

"About damn time you showed up dad," Silver said.

"Any clue how to kill this thing?" I asked.

"None,"

"We've shot it with fire ESP and pure wind, it's almost like it just doesn't know what pain is." Blaze commented.

"INCOMING!" Sonic shouted.

We all dove aside dodging the foot that tried to stomp us like ants.

"I've got one thing we can try but it's very risky." I said.

"What's that?"

"A Chaos Blast, I haven't done one in a very long time but it's worth a shot."

"Are you crazy?" Sonic said, "You'd kill us all in the process!"

"Not if I can get into it's mouth."

"WHAT!?" Silver shouted, "You want it to eat you!?"

"In a way yes."

"I see his point Silver," Blaze said, "If Shadow can get inside and unleash the Chaos Blast, he'll blow it up from the inside out."

Silver sighed after a moment of silence and another dodge from the giant claws, "Alright,"

"You guys get out of here, I'll handle this."

The three of them started to run and I sprinted up to its shin and threw a punch into it, that felt like punching solid concrete. I then drew the rifle I still had and fired off a full magazine into it. It finally register that I was there and shook me off. I was able to recover and land on my feet facing it.

"C'mon!" I taunted, "You hungry?"-I spread my arms, "There's a perfectly good meal talking to you, you ugly son of a bitch!"

It growled and lashed out with its mouth. I jumped avoiding its front teeth and trying to gain my balance. I focused hard as it tried to swallow me. I felt a rush the shot my quills up and a sudden wind started blowing, though I'm not sure if that was me of this thing's breath. I felt it now, in every inch of my body, a power that just wanted to get out. So I let it out.

"Chaos...BLAST!"

The ensuing explosion blew everything outward. I could see slime blood and bone bits scattering around a rather large area. Looking down there was now a headless corpse falling to the ground. Then I realized I was at least forty feet in the air and I didn't have my jet shoes...

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" I screamed as I started falling. _I'm screwed...yep...I'm dead I'm so dead, I'm completely screwed _were the thoughts ringing through my mind. I'd fallen from orbit sure but I was in super form at that time...I barely remembered how to unleash Chaos blast today, so that was only natural. When I was about half way to the ground I felt my momentum shift from down to the side and something hit me causing myself and it to land on a roof top. I tumbled until I was teetering on the edge of said roof. I quickly backed up as blood started raining down. I turned around and saw Sonic sprawled out at least ten feet from me. He stood up looked up and gave a look of disgust.

"That's nasty," he said sticking his tongue out.

"When you're fighting giants..." I replied with a shrug, "Thanks for the save,"

"No problem."

"Are Blaze and Silver alright?"

He nodded, "Let's get off of this roof."

We headed inside from the roof access door and outside from the front door. Silver and Blaze were standing in the rain of blood both watching us.

"Nice going." Silver said.

I nodded, then exhaustion hit me like a freight train. I felt my knees buckle and my vision went black.

* * *

When I woke up we were in the store that I'd come down from. I sat up and grimaced, my ribs were either broken or that slash wound was worse then I thought. I took a look around, it was dark. The Banshee queen was outside still dead and headless, and the others were all asleep. I got to my feet and lifted up my shirt, I could see the hardened foam-like substance coating it, the guys had used a health vaccine on me. Looking around I decided to take a quick inventory. In my bag I still had the box of 5.56mm rounds, I had three MREs left, four bottles of water, and the journal also. I took that out and the pen I kept with it, and logged in what had just happened. When that was done I looked outside and the sun was coming up. It'd be a little bit before the guys woke up so I decided to do a little recon. I first checked the shop I'd been tossed into, inside I didn't find anything useful. Next I checked the the bank that was across the street, what do you know I found .12 gauge pump shotgun and a .357 magnum with five bullets loaded and a box with some ammo in it. There were more shotgun shell then magnum shells but that didn't matter. I quickly gathered them and made a strap for the shotgun out of the ropes where the lines normally would've been. In the next stop I made I found Blaze's M416, which by some miracle survived being blasted out of a Banshee queen's mouth. I picked that back up and strapped it along my back and quickly returned to the shop. Someone however though it best to attack me. A guy jumped out of the shadows and landed on top of me and tried to put a knife in me. I slapped his arm aside and slammed a fist into his face so hard that he caught air when he fell off of me. I lifted my shotgun.

"Leave or I blow your fucking head off!" I warned him.

"Ahk ahk!" he shouted like he were some kind of Native American.

I sensed now four men surrounding me. I sighed, "You chose the wrong hedgehog to fuck with today,"

I jumped into the air and fired the shotgun clipping their leader in the shoulder and dropping him. I landed on another one's back. My sudden weight dropped the him and I snapped his neck as the third and forth guys started shooting though they were missing. I flash-stepped and grabbed one guy's arms forcing them to turn and then pull the trigger, he shot his ally square in the face. I then decked him in the face and forced him to drop the gun. I picked it up and pointed it at him, it was a Colt M1911 .45 pistol.

"I'll give you til the count of five to get outta here before I shoot you the face."

"The Namboo will hunt your ass down! We won't let this one slide."

He rushed me and I squeezed the trigger. His head snapped back and he dropped instantly. I then checked their bodies and found some rounds for the M1911, an MRE and a couple of bottles of water. One guy was wearing a kind of indigo jacket, I took that; Sonic was going to need it come November. I then returned to the store to find Silver and Blaze looking around for something and Sonic was moving through the bag that Blaze had brought as if it were the most disgusting job in the world.

"Miss me?" I said setting my new found stuff down.

"Dad!" Silver said, "Where were you?"

"Recon; I found some things you guys might like."

"Oh what so it's Christmas all of a sudden?" Sonic said walking over.

I set down my bag, "Yes, for you it is."

I gave Sonic the jacket, he put it on, it was a little big but not by much.

"If I wash this will it shrink?"

"Probably," I told him.

"Good, this is perfect," He jammed his hands in the pocket and put up the hood, "Mmmmmhm...toasty!"

"And as far as supplies go I guess there was a mob bank or something that I raided, found a .12 gauge shotgun, a magnum we can use those .357 bullets for, and this."

I showed them the new .45 I had, "Semi-automatic, twelve rounds plus one, and it has this."-I pointed the weapon at the wall and hallway squeezed the trigger about half way, a little red dot appeared on the wall.

"A laser site," Silver commented, "Nice."

"A group of raiders from the Namboo showed up too, I got all four of them though so we're still good. In fact that's where your jacket came from."

"That explains why it was still warm," Sonic said though he shrugged it off like he didn't care. I guess since the shit hit the fan he'd donned the better him than me attitude. I made note of that.

"So now what dad?" Silver said

"We're heading to that camp," I replied, "C'mon when we cut through that subway we weren't very far."

"I can get you there from here." Blaze said, "Just follow me, but know this, if they see me they'll kill me."

"Gee that's something you forgot to mention!" I snapped then sighed, "Alright just get us close enough to where we can't miss it."

"Wait a minute, if she's not going in then I'm not either." Silver said scooting closer and taking Blaze's hand.

"Don't be stupid Silver, we have to get into that camp."

"But what about Blaze? We can't just leave her for dead!"

Blaze looked him the eyes, "I'll be fine Silver, really."

I started to head outside and the bunch of us got going with Blaze in the lead.

"We need to head southwest from here," she told us while we were following a road. The buildings here had been raided and some of them were falling into disrepair. I felt a hint of sadness thinking this street used to be populated with so many people that it was sometimes hard to walk. Now they were eerily empty, it was way too quiet.

"To think this used to be one of the busiest places on the planet." I commented still walking.

"What are you talking about dad?" Silver asked.

"Fifteen years ago, this city was home to more than eight million people. When the rock hit people panicked and then the riots started, this place fell apart. Three days into it I think is around when the scum got out and everyone scattered or died."

"Wow..."

I nodded, "What street are we on?"-I was looking around for a green street sign. Though I didn't see one right away, we had to head up the road a little bit before I found the name of the road.

"Okay, we're on Cervantes street heading south and right now were at the intersection with 98th Boulevard so this area would've been pretty busy." I said.

"How would you know that? It looks pretty dead to me."

"Because right there."-I pointed to a pizzeria, "Is where I used to work before everything went wrong,"

"You told me you were a hero,"

"I was, when the time called for it Sonic and I were both heroes for the most part,"

Sonic nodded, "Yeah, we had to fight this guy that wanted to overthrow the government and enslave us all."

"You mean Robotnik?"

Sonic nodded, "I preferred just calling him Eggman, that was his nick-name after all."

"I don't see why he didn't keep his real name like it was." I commented, "Robotnik sounds better then Eggman."

"With that guy who knows and to be honest who gives a shit now."

"I'll bet you he didn't last ten minutes out here."

Sonic laughed and so did I even though I respected the doctor as our enemy. We continued for what could've been hours, only stopping for an occasional water break, in which I would log anything that happened. I decided to go over some of my old entries.

I smiled when I came across one from a while ago.

Silver's crying again. Said that there's monsters outside. To be honest it wouldn't surprise me if there were. Well I checked all over the place and didn't find anything except a few rats that I promptly killed with that knife I found. So Silver's with me in the bed in the back of the shop. I wished that I could get him to start eating regular food, finding baby food isn't exactly easy when a whole city just went to hell, thanks a lot meteor! Hoping to find Amy soon, the cell tower went down today, some jackass decided to sever communications to the rest of the world. That or something just went wrong. There no way of knowing for sure. I'm tired, I think I'll get some sleep now.

I shut the journal and stood following Blaze again.

"Are we getting close?" I asked.

Blaze nodded, "This is where we part ways Shadow,"-she pointed down 35th street, "Just follow this road for about ten or fifteen minutes and you'll see their entrance. Good luck you guys."

"You too, thanks for everything," I replied.

Blaze looked at Sonic and nodded then at me then her eyes turned to face Silver, she froze then kissed him on the cheek before taking off in the other direction. Silver was now stunned his had was on his cheek.

"C'mon," I said, "Let's go,"

"No." Silver said, "I'm not leaving her out there to die."

"Damn it Silver, we have to go, I can't help it that the Namboo don't want her here."

"I'll go after her." Sonic said, "If you guys can eliminate the Namboo there then she can come back right?"

I hadn't thought about that, I looked at Silver, he nodded, "Please I don't want her out there. I don't want her to die!"

I smirked, "She was a good friend Silver, I'm not going to let her go without some kind of fight if you'll fight also. Let's get in there and figure out what's going on."

Sonic sprinted off after Blaze while Silver and went towards the camp, armed and definitely dangerous.


	6. Shadow vs Alec Namboo

**Disaster Ch 5**

It took Silver and I roughly ten minutes to get to the entrance to the camp. When we were seen two goons in raggedy clothes came outside and pointed weapons at us. One guy had a cutlass, not much good that would do against my shotgun, and the other had an AK47. I lifted my hands.

"Who are you?" one asked.

"Just a couple of survivors." I said, "Is this the refugee camp?"

"What if it is?"

"Then we'd like to come inside,"

"You look pretty fit, and well supplied...alright, I'll let you in, and take you to see the boss so he can add you to the rosters."

They let us inside, looking around I could see people were starved some were either unconscious or dead, others wounded and being treated by what looked like actual doctors. I also noticed they had refurbished houses for people to live in, though most were kinda run down. Silver kept close, I could already tell he didn't like it here. We came to a rather large structure, it had a second floor to it and the two border guards led us inside.

"Hey boss," one said, "We got two new guys that want in."

"Send 'em in." I heard a voice from behind a curtain say.

Silver and I went in. The room was simple, it had a desk near the back wall, there was a shelf on the right wall a couch and lounge chair in the center with a coffee table to complete it, while the left wall had a queen sized bed shoved against it. I didn't like it already, this guy was living in luxury while me and my stepson were barely getting by fending off raiders and Banshees.

"So you two want into this camp?" the guy said sitting in an armchair, he was a hedgehog that was older then I was, his quills were gray with age. His eyes were brown but glazed slightly I guess from lack of being able to use that bed in the left part of the room.

"Yes," I told him, "I've been out there in that gods-forsaken place trying to survive when I heard about this place from a flier. I got here as soon as I could."

Silver nodded agreeing but didn't speak.

"Alright, I think we'll have room for you, I just need to get your names."

"I'm Shadow, and this is my son Silver,"

With a pen he jotted something down on a piece of paper.

"Okay...ages?"

"I'm thirty-six and Silver is eighteen."

More writing...

"Alright, you both can stay in house 86C, it's on the east side of the camp, fairly close to our border. And take this too, our rules around here."-he gave me a copy of some rules and the two of us left heading towards the house.

On the way there Silver nudged me, "I don't like it here, there a lot of tension in the air."

"I know, I could practically cut it with a knife."

Silver nodded, "So now what? Are we going to go through and kill that guy so Blaze can come in or what?"

"Silver step one of this job would first be to learn our enemy. That said, it's going to be a while."

"And what do you plan on doing until then?"

"I don't know,"

"So you'll let Blaze and Sonic starve out there?"

"Of course not! I'm going to be looking around for someone."

"Let me guess, your lost girlfriend?"

I nodded, "She's a pink hedgehog, usually wore a red sundress, had a giant hammer on her person at all times."

Silver looked confused, "Huh?"

"Yeah...she had a hammer on her at all times, though I never found where she kept it."

I then heard a grunt then an 'oof' and some guy flew across the street and into the house wall next to us. The guy whom looked drunk off of his rocker stood up.

"That's a good one Rosy...I'll...I'll try you again...ah whenever the fuck." he said and staggered away.

Walking towards where he'd flew from I saw just whom I'd been looking for, her quills had grown out, and she wasn't wearing that dress rather a pair of blue jeans and a snow jacket. I told Silver to wait there as I walked over to her.

"Excuse me." I called.

She turned and lifted the hammer, "What? You think you can come over here like your buddy did? I told you I'm not a whore like he thinks!"

"Whoa calm down..." I said, "I'm looking for someone and thought you were her,"

She lowered the hammer.

"I guess that was my mistake," I told her and started to walk away.

"Wait, who are you looking for?"

I stopped and turned around, "She's a pink hedgehog like you are,"

"Mhm..."

"Had that exact hammer too, hit a buddy of mine in the head a couple of times with it,"-I was pointing to her hammer.

"So you're looking for me? I'm Amy,"

"I knew it..."

She looked at me funny, I guess she hadn't recognized me with the beard, "You look familiar..."

"It's me Shadow."

She dropped her hammer, "No...your supposed to be dead, fifteen years and you've been looking for me?"

"I found your note at my place about three days ago, figured you were still here."

"Prove your the real Shadow then."

"Okay quiz me."

She hummed, "Did Dr. Eggman awaken you from suspended animation?"

"Yes,"

"Where?"

"Prison Island, maximum security cell on sub level D."

"Who were your biggest rivals before all of this?"

"Sonic and Eggman,"

"When did we start dating?"

"November, sixteen years ago."

"Damn you have a good memory."

"Well it helps to log it all in this,"-I showed her the journal.

"Okay, 'Shadow' I have one last test for you."

"Sure."

"Show me a Chaos Spear, only the real Shadow could do that."

I shrugged and formed one in each hand.

She looked impressed, "You really are Shadow."

I shot the spears skyward and they vanished, "Would I lie to you?"

"I've had so many people try to get with me for some reason or another, all of them claimed to be you."

"C'mon there's only one me."

That's when Silver approached, "So is this her?"

I nodded, "Silver this is Amy, Amy, Silver,"

"And he's..."

"I'm his son." Silver said

Uh oh...

Amy looked at me, "Well whose the mother?"

"Um about that..."

"Did you see someone else? I mean it's understandable if you did during all of this but...what happened to always and forever?"

"Look I remembered that honey; about three days after shit hit the fan, a girl approached me, she was hurt very badly, and had a bundle of cloths wrapped around something. She hands it to me says, "I'm done for," and dies right there in my arms. That was Silver..."

"The bundle?"

I nodded.

"So Shadow isn't my real dad..." Silver's voice was trembling with shock

"Look kid..."

He took a step back, "Why didn't you tell me?"

"There was never a proper time,"

"Damn it Shadow! So all of that 'I love you' stuff was a lie?"

"NO! Silver, I was being completely honest with you, I may not be your blood father, but I still love you as a son."

Silver looked shocked, "I'm leaving..."

"What? You can't go out there by yourself."

"What the fuck do you care!?"

Before I could say something else he sprinted off and disappeared across the border guard post.

"Hey! Get back here!" some guy shouted.

"Let him go," I saw the head of the camp out there, "He was born and raised in this shit. He'll be fine..."

I approached him now I was pissed.

"Hello Shadow." he greeted.

I clenched a fist, "Why didn't you stop him?"

He shrugged, "It is a choice to come here, if he wishes to leave then I see no reason to stop him."

"He's my son you pompous son of a bitch!" I snapped.

The hedgehog looked at me as if he weren't impressed, "Don't get snappy with me hedgehog, I'll see you exiled just like that girl a few years ago."

He started to walk away. Amy looked worried, almost as if she expected me to do something stupid.

"Was she a pinkish-purple furred cat?" I asked him.

The hedgehog stopped and faced me again, "Why yes she was,"

"Her name was Blaze wasn't it?"

He growled, "If I ever hear that name spoken here again I will personally rip your tongue out and feed it to the crows."

"What did she do to you that was so bad she was forced out?"

"Lets see, she burned down my office twice, destroyed three of our ammo depots and killed some of my best men. She's a menace, a criminal that deserves nothing but death."

I stopped for a second and started to think about what was really going on here, "How old was she when all of this happened?"

"Twelve why?"

"So she'd hit adolescence?"

He nodded.

"Well that explains why,"

He tilted his head to the side, "What do you mean?"

"She's a Chaos possessor, her power comes in the form of fire. You obviously don't know what happens when a Chaos Mobian hits adolescence."

"Oh do tell,"-his tone was very sarcastic.

"When we hit that stage our hormones sometimes influence our powers, causing them to sometimes get out of control. I should know I blew up a whole section of Space Colony Ark one day when I was fifteen and still maturing."

"So you're one of those freaks too?"

I gritted my teeth, "I'm no freak...I'm just not like you,"

"The last freak that passed through here burned down parts of this camp and killed my men. I should banish you too but for whatever reason I trust you here. So I think I know what you can do,"

Oh boy...

"You,"-he pointed at me, "will serve as one of my raiders, kill anyone that has supplies and steal them for us."

I cringed, "You're the head of the raiders around here?"

"Are you kidding Namboo rules this city, we only take back what is rightfully ours, and that's everything."

"You're insane..."

He hissed, "Poor choice of words,"-he lifted his hand and snapped his fingers. I sensed a rise in Chaos Energy and I ended up dodging a Chaos Spear. There was something up with his Chaos Energy though, it didn't seem natural.

"What the..." he said shocked that I suddenly dodged that spear, then he growled, "Hold still and your death will be painless!"

I saw Amy was gone. _Thanks a lot babe...leave me to die. HA! _I tried shooting him but he ducked behind cover and his guards approached me and started shooting back. I dove into a prone position and took one guy out but had to roll behind a house that started to get shot up by the second guy. I reloaded and peered around the corner, bullets flashed by me and I ducked back again now with tunneled blurry vision. My adrenaline was pumping now, and yes I was scarred to die here. I started blind firing and heard a scream so assuming that I'd hit him I poked out and saw him holding his leg, his AK47 out of reach. I looked around for the Namboo leader. He snapped his fingers and I sensed it again, the strange Chaos Energy signature. I dodged again as the ground exploded into plumes of dirt. I started shooting that way and pinned him down. I started moving closer reloading as I did.

"Hey what the hell!"

I heard a loud _crack _and he flew into a house slamming into the wall with such hard hit that the wall dented and left him stuck there. I was half expecting a Banshee to have broken in but when Amy came from around the corner with her hammer at the ready I nearly jumped, just glad my weapon was now on safety.

"Good timing," I said

She nodded at me, "He always sent idiots to try to get me to meet him in private,"

"He wanted you?"

"Mhm."

I smirked, "Not surprising,"

She blushed slightly.

"You think this is over?" the hedgehog said pulling himself free.

I leveled my weapon and Amy gripped her hammer tighter.

"You're just lucky with those two dodges. I'm in possession of the ultimate power!"

_I'll be the judge of that..._I saw him pull out a syringe and stab his elbow with it. That wasn't a health vaccine, I could tell cause the minute the contents entered his blood stream I sensed he was getting stronger. He waved his hands and tossed more spear at the two of us. I dodged right and Amy left. The spears exploded against the ground causing dirt and dust to cloud my vision. The next thing I knew he'd rushed me and took me to the ground. I'd lost my rifle in the skirmish. I threw him off with a hard kick to the stomach.

"Artificial Chaos Energy?" I questioned, "Where the hell did you get that from?"

"Like I'll tell you!" he flash-stepped at me and reared back a punch, I blocked it and slammed my own into his face and followed up with a high kick that knocked him into the air. I then round kicked him across the street. He slammed back into his dent. He pulled himself out as I jumped doing a flying side kick and nailed him in the chest. He staggered and flash-stepped behind me elbowing me into the dent so hard that I shot though the house, I was dazed for a split second but I recovered shortly after. I jumped out of the hole and saw he and Amy in a skirmish. The hedgehog threw a series of punches that Amy dodged and responded to with a bunt from the hilt of her hammer then a side swing that the Namboo leader took full force. It sent him flying down the road.

"Damn that hammer!" he cursed.

I rushed him and we started our little skirmish again, we matched each other blow for blow. I punched him in the gut and he smacked me in the side of the head. He followed up with a palm fist that knocked me on my ass. Amy reared up the hammer but he caught it and disarmed her. Amy then took a hit to the stomach and she doubled over. He tossed the hammer aside.

"Why do you insist on fight for him?" he asked, "He's a filthy outsider and a total freak!"

Amy got up and took a fighting stance, she still remembered what I'd shown her when she and I met at the gym, "That 'freak' is my boyfriend Alec."

"Oh?" Alec faced me, "Does that mean if he dies you'll love me?"

"Fuck that shit!" Amy cursed.

I was surprised actually, Amy hardly ever cursed when we dated pre-disaster and even more rarely was it so explicit. Alec looked at me.

"Well," He said pointing an open hand at me, "It's worth a shot."

He then fired a Chaos Spear at me. I countered it with one of my own, when the two collided instead of just dissipating they exploded. A column of flames shot up the size of a human before it faded away.

"I knew it!" I said, "You are using artificial Chaos Energy!"

"So what?"

He rushed me and I picked myself up onto one hand and did a tornado kick that knocked him back. I then spun twice more before getting to my feet and taking a stance.

"You're out matched here Alec," Amy said, "Just give up and we can forget this ever happened."

"HA!" he scoffed, "I think I'll just break the freaks legs, then while he's down I'll do you the right way before I kill both of you."

I growled, "You cannot kill me."

"Can I?"

He flung three spears at me. I dodged them and grabbed him by the throat and slammed him to the ground so hard a dent the size of a small car cratered around us. He choked.

"In one move Alec," I said, "I could kill you in one move right here right now, but I give you a chance to walk away. I suggest you take it."

"You think you can beat me?"

He kicked me in the chest and then pinned me to the ground, I sensed a large amount of Chaos Energy coming from him. Only one thing could cause that.

"Chaos..."

My eyes widened as I tried to flash step but it was no use.

"BLAST!"

I saw nothing but red and was shot into the ground even further. The blast wasn't nearly as strong as it should've been. I flash stepped out of the hole and didn't see Alec. Some by standers were approaching to inspect the carnage. I looked around and Amy was sitting there utterly shock by what had just happened.

"Alec...exploded." she muttered, "What just happened?"

"His Chaos Energy wasn't natural," I told her, "An artificial Chaos Blast will kill whoever uses it, whereas a natural one will only wipe out whatever is around the user."

"So he essentially committed suicide?"

I nodded.

"Alec was the head of the camp, he was the only reason the Namboo had any influence here at all."

"How many Namboo personnel are here?"

"There were the two border guards, one's incapacitated, the other dead, the raiders but they're on patrol, and Alec, who is also dead."

"Any idea how many raiders were here?"

"I'd say maybe twenty,"

I tapped a man on the shoulder, "I need your help with something."

He nodded.

"What's your name?"

"Johnathan."

"What can you tell me about the people of this camp?"

"Most of us know how to use a gun, but we're under fed. Are you gonna change that?"

I nodded, "But I can't do it alone, I'll need some help from you guys. I need to track down three people,"

"Are they outside of the camp?"

I nodded again, "Two of them are supposed to met me at the south border of the camp."

"We'll keep an eye out."

"I want you to redistribute the food so that everyone gets an equal share, no more of this 'I get more because I have power' bull shit."

Johnathan nodded and headed towards what I guessed was the supply depot.

"Amy, are you up for a little quest?"

"That depends what we're doing Shadow,"

"We're going to find Silver."

She nodded, "He's your stepson, and if you're going I'll go too, after all someone has to watch your back out there."

I chuckled, "We'll get a bite to eat and then head out."

She agreed and we headed back to her assigned house. It was now time for me to get ready for the most dangerous part of this little adventure.

"You worried?" Amy asked.

"Silver's a smart kid, he'll be okay...I hope."


	7. I found my son

**Disaster Ch 6**

Not to sure of where we were headed Amy and I had scouted the already obvious places Silver possibly could've gone to. We were maybe an hour outside of camp and still had no luck, not even with finding supplies. The most I'd found that could've been useful was an empty bottle of water, emphasis on empty.

"C'mon, where the heck could he have run off to?" I asked myself.

"We'll find him," Amy assured me.

I nodded just unsure of where he'd have run off to. Then I remembered something and felt extremely stupid. I shut my eyes and started to focus my senses into one. I felt a large amount of Chaos Energy, natural of course, coming from the pizzeria where I told Silver I used to work. Opening my eyes I motioned Amy to follow. I kept my guard up however, wishing I'd remembered to grab my M416 before we'd done all of this, so instead I drew the M1911 that I still had. I noticed Amy had her hammer out and at the ready as we moved deeper into the city.

"I think he's at the old pizza place where I used to work." I told her.

She simply nodded and we continued that way. My ears flicked, there was something following us. Turning around I saw a prowler crawling towards us. When I pointed my weapon it jumped up onto a rooftop and shrieked before disappearing.

"That can't be good." I said.

I then heard a lot more cries before Amy could comment and suddenly running at us were three drones and new beast also. I was bigger then the drone but not as big as the warlord, it's claws were more jagged then clean sharp. It also had a more elongated head then a drone and was crawling on all fours. There were five of those, which I came to call brawlers because they loved fighting. I immediately started shooting telling Amy to run. I clipped a drone in the head and it dropped instantly before I started running. When we got into the middle of what used to be station square I noticed that first off there was no cover, so we couldn't hide and secondly the warlord was also following the hoard. It looked as if the gates of hell had just broken open and the demons were pouring out into the clearing. I started shooting and quickly had to reload. Amy was fending off a pair of drones with her hammer while I kept shooting. I finally ran out of bullets and had to fall back on my own hand-to-hand fighting. I drew the knife I had and was using that in a bunch of counter styles. One drone lunged at me and I dodged to the left slashing its throat. It dropped in a pool of blood and died not two minutes later. During said two minutes another three attacked me and I countered one by deflecting the blow spinning my back to it and stabbing it in the heart, killing it instantly, jumped up and landed on another one's back and stabbed it threw the back of the head, dropping that one and the third one I caught it's arm and stabbed it three times in the chest which dropped that one too. Amy swung her hammer as if it were a sword and was sending drones and prowlers flying in every direction. It reminded me of Lord of the Rings when Sauran is fighting off all the elves and sending them all flying with one swipe of that big mace he had. I turned around and there was the warlord...I ducked under its giant claws and started running.

"RUN!" I screamed at Amy.

She gave one last swing and started running, strapping the hammer to her back as she went.

"Now what?" She asked while we were running, "We can't fight them all off."

"Why do you think I said to run? We just have to lose them for a moment then we can go back here and find Silver."

Amy nodded, "You're sarcasm is still as blunt as ever,"

We kept running with that eight foot tall behemoth a contingent of brawlers and countless drones following us. The drones were the fastest and ended up landing in front of us every now and then forcing us to turn. Thank Chaos we didn't get separated. I eventually was able to find an old house that the two of us jumped inside of and waited for the footsteps to stop. Those were the longest three minutes of my life, and Amy was holding my hand the whole time I could tell that both of us were scared shitless. When the footsteps passed we got out and headed back the way we came, I saw Amy blushing like mad, and I fell back a bit.

"You okay?" I asked

She shook her head yes and said nothing.

"You sure?"-I was insisting that she tell me but she didn't answer me.

When we got to the pizzeria I stepped inside and immediately had a gun put to my head.

"Don't move an inch raider." said a very familiar voice.

"So how many times has this happened Silver?" I responded

Silver came out of the shadow of the door, he had a Walther P99 pointed at me.

"What do you want Shadow?"

"I came to tell you I'm sorry,"

"Sorry for lying to me for fifteen years? Ha! Thanks, but I'll pass. I need some time to figure out who I really am."

I sighed as Amy walked in, when she saw the gun she gasped.

"Look kid," I said to him, "You don't want to go down that road."

"What the hell would you know about it."

I gave a kind of are-you-serious look, "Haven't I told you about what happened then?"

"Not once, you hardly ever talk about yourself from pre-disaster, whatever the hell that means."

"Listen then, I woke up with amnesia 50 years into the future with no idea what the fuck was happening, so I went looking for who I was. I didn't like what I found, my creator was accused of treason and sentence to life in prison, they killed my best friend from back then also. I found out that my blood father gave me life solely for the purpose of wanting to kill everyone here so he could seize power. I murdered hundreds in the process of doing all of this and threatened to kill the people who cared most about me. You don't want that kind of blood on your hands trust me."

Silver hesitated then looked at Amy who only nodded as if trying to tell him that I was being serious.

"Did you know my parents at all Shadow?"

"No," I replied, "Your mother died in my arms when you were three, it was a cold winter evening when it happened, approximately three days after I got out of that so-called safe house,"

"And my father? Did you two ever meet?"

I shook my head, "No,"

"Did I have brothers sisters or anything like that?"

"I don't know,"

"Why the hell do you care about me then? You don't know who I am at all do you!?"

"Silver I raised you from three years old, I've loved you like a son from day one. C'mon you know this."

"Then what about her?"-he motioned to Amy, "You mentioned her and I thought she was my mom, why didn't you say she wasn't? Why didn't you tell me that you weren't my real father from the start?"

I hesitated then finally came out with it, "I was weak. I didn't know what it would do to you."

Silver's eyes softened and he lowered the gun.

"I was scared," I went on, "I was scared that you would run off and never want anything to do with me, you were the only companion I'd had for fifteen whole years. I loved you like my own flesh and blood, Silver, that's the truth."

"I would've taken it better had you told me sooner."

"And I was too afraid of how you would take the news."

Silver put the gun away and hugged me, "I'm sorry for running away,"

I hugged him back, "Hey it's alright, no more secrets. Okay?"

He nodded.

"Aw..." Amy said, "That so cute."

I looked up at her and jokingly said, "Jealous?"

She gave a Japanese flip-off by pulling down the bottom of eye lid with her middle finger and sticking her tongue out at me. I just chuckled.

"Now we have to get back to camp," I said, "C'mon, we should be able to get back by sun down if we hurry."

"What about Blaze and Sonic? They still can't come in can they?"

I nodded, "The head of the Namboo, Alec; he died trying to Chaos Blast me."

"So he exploded?"

I nodded.

"Sweet, let's go back,"

I led the way back cautious the whole time.

"What's got you so worked up?" Silver asked me.

"A Banshee hoard chased up for easily ten or fifteen block earlier, I think they're still looking for us."

I heard another roar.

"Well that would explain him."-Silver pointed and standing on a rooftop was the Banshee warlord.

"Fuck!" I cursed, and started to run with the other two behind me as it jumped in front of us and tried to slice me to pieces.

"Go back, go back!" I shouted, "We have to get around it!"

Silver gave a sly smirk, "Or we could always kill it."

The boy stopped and reared his hands back.

"Silver what the hell are you doing?"

"Fus..."

"Or dear gods," I started shaking my head.

"RO DAH!" he finished bringing his hands forward. The Banshee warlord was tossed into a building by a wall of ESP that collapsed on top of it.

"Where the hell did you pick that up?" I asked started to run back towards the camp with him and Amy following me.

"Stopped in an old store that sold these things called video games. That was from one of the advertisements they showed on the TV there."

"You mean that it still worked?"

Silver nodded, "Don't bother trying to get a message out to someone there though, it's all linked to a LAN for that store only."

I swore, "We can deal with that later,"

We ran passed the warlord as it picked itself up from under the building and started chasing us. We couldn't bring it back to camp with us so I took a little detour but led us into a dead end.

"Son of a..."

The warlord started swiping at us I dodged what I could but ultimately we had our backs to the wall.

"Any more bright ideas?"

I started looking around for some way to get us out of this when an tornado of fire appeared behind it and crashed over the behemoth's back.

"Go while it's hurt!" I shouted and we all ran.

It turned around now burnt and yelled so loudly I bet the guys at camp heard it. When I saw Blaze there spamming fire at it I knew we were either saved or completely fucked.

"So how have you been?" I asked Blaze.

"Could be better," she replied, "Like not fighting a giant...whatever the hell these things are."

Silver reared back and threw another huge wave of ESP at the behemoth knocking it over. I saw my chance and jumped on top of it drawing my knife. Before it could get up I stabbed it in the throat several times. Blood gushed from the wound like a fountain as I kept going getting coated in the sticky stuff. It threw me off and I lost my knife as Amy smashed it across the head with her hammer. It heard a disgusting snapping noise and the beast went limp. Unfortunately for me...it landed on me...dead.

"Get this thing off of me," I said though my voice was muffled.

Silver did lifting up the heavy corpse with his telekinetic abilities and tossing it aside like a play toy.

I got to my feet and took my knife back, cleaning off the blood.

"Thanks Ames," I said sheathing the weapon.

"No problem Shads."

I started walking back towards camp with them following me.

"So where's Sonic?" I asked Blaze.

"Back at camp helping with the supplies."

"You know what we have to do now that those two threats are out of the picture right?"

She shook her head.

"I think we should try to rebuild. I mean it's not like it's that bad around here."

"We'd need a lot more people to do that."

"That's where I'm lost, I have no clue where to go for the man power and I don't exactly have a way to pay people."

"I think I have an idea." Amy said.

We let her take front.

"I know an airport that still has planes that work."

"And Sonic is a pilot,"

"Sonic's a pilot?" Silver commented.

"It's a very long story,"

"Yeah he could fly us to some other part of the country, we could look for survivors that would be willing to rebuild the cities, eventually, and probably not in our lifetime everything goes back to the way it was before."

I hadn't considered that far ahead, "Alright, we could try. But let's focus on getting back to the camp first, I want to take this one step at a time."

Everyone agreed and on we walked.

**A/N: Thanks for the reviews ShadowEmpress, I have no clue how long this story is going to be since it was kind of a spur of the moment story. I got the idea after watching Tim Burton's 9. So yeah...glad you like it! =D**


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